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robi
11-22-2004, 01:19 PM
Sparco has done a lot to raise the image of the EVO by spending big $$$'s on their car even BIGGER $$$$ campaigning testing products and providing products for a given (very small segment of the import market). They have been very free with their product to both Socalevo/Norcalevo for products at raffle and the EOC. Our community has benifited from Sparco time and time again. I think the post was made public to stop in its tracks the further sale of the product in question. The bar has enough distinctive features that the "knock off" was recognized as the Original right away...Sparco is a huge business we here in the USA just see the bare tip of the iceberg that supports MANY racing programs for our entertainment. I think that the slight $$ difference is worth it and have purchased Sparco products both for their engineering/quality and VALUE to the racing community as a whole not just my little corner of this world. Before you ask has Sparco sponsored product on my car YES in the Business side they see a perceived benefit (for which I'm grateful). The fact that their products JUST WORK and fulfill all the necessary qualifications so I can just race and not worry if the equipment will fail...priceless.

hksevo8
11-22-2004, 01:38 PM
Sparco has done a lot to raise the image of the EVO by spending big $$$'s on their car even BIGGER $$$$ campaigning testing products and providing products for a given (very small segment of the import market). They have been very free with their product to both Socalevo/Norcalevo for products at raffle and the EOC. Our community has benifited from Sparco time and time again. I think the post was made public to stop in its tracks the further sale of the product in question. The bar has enough distinctive features that the "knock off" was recognized as the Original right away...Sparco is a huge business we here in the USA just see the bare tip of the iceberg that supports MANY racing programs for our entertainment. I think that the slight $$ difference is worth it and have purchased Sparco products both for their engineering/quality and VALUE to the racing community as a whole not just my little corner of this world. Before you ask has Sparco sponsored product on my car YES in the Business side they see a perceived benefit (for which I'm grateful). The fact that their products JUST WORK and fulfill all the necessary qualifications so I can just race and not worry if the equipment will fail...priceless.

I agree with your statement about sparco providing a great amount of support for the EVO community. What I tend to disagree with you on is the amount of money Sparco or Scott spent on the EVO. I am sure, that just like the rest of the aftemarket community, that most of if not all of the equipment on Scott's car was given to him and Sparco by the manufacturers of those products. What I do not agree with is that because they have a monopoly on the bar itself, being the first to bring it to market, why now is he bringing up law suits about it. How many seat manufacturers are they in litatgation about over similiar designs? And why bring it to the EVO community and try to make a competitor look bad. That is bad business sense in my eyes. If you have a product that is a great design you are bound to run into some knockoffs (check EBAY) Go ahead and sue them if you would like, but please don't make us feel sorry for your being in a competitive market. This is not a reflection on SocalEvo or it moderators but more of a bitch fest which is what the after market manufacturers are all about.

kipper215
11-22-2004, 02:01 PM
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but there is a problem that really needs to be addressed. If a person or a vendor has a problem with vendor it should never be view publicly. negative pub is like bad press.(use to sway public opinion). sparco is a great company, but there needs to be a code of conduct between business people. as part of the community i don't know all of the facts. when i hear negative pub about a vendor it makes me not want to shop there no matter who it is. keeping these disagreements private gives both parties time to work out the facts and provides the community with better resources for getting products at a competitive price.

JanSolo
11-22-2004, 03:18 PM
They have been very free with their product to both Socalevo/Norcalevo for products at raffle and the EOC.

:( How come I wasn't informed about the free Sparco items for NorCalEvo raffles?

toku-one
11-22-2004, 03:34 PM
i once again agree with everyone.
if i buy a harness bar it will most definetly be sparco seeing as how its closely the same price and a better piece of mind (my personal opionion)

i do however think that they will find it VERY hard to sue on that item because you only have to change "design" by 20% to not be considered a knock off.
materials being different alone would make it 20% difference, looking at the design of the brackets once again would probably easily push it past that 20%.
while it is unfortunate, thats the law.

robi
11-22-2004, 04:12 PM
HKSEVO8, I see where your coming from but running my car has proven that the cost of the parts is nothing compaired to running the car, tuning it, fixing broken parts, testing new parts (a T-case/locking front dif Sparco bought and airfreighted for 2K and grenaded on the first day they installed it comes to mind). Sparco has choices as to where they spend the profits they make. I for one am glad they choose to invest in our community and in our car too. This is a competitive market and if you choose to support people just capitolizing on others engineering and marketing you can. But I hope never to hear you complaining on the lack of products for our EVOs. I would hate for our community to get the rep. that if you produce a product and someone copies it you will be dropped like last nights one night stand. This rep. will lead to the "good" companies to focus their $$$'s on more loyal communities. Pick your companies support the ones that support the whole community and the amount of choices will continue to grow. Do otherwise and we will all own "skylines" ubercool but with a serious lack of BOLT in products...long lead times for those products that are availble and pay a lot of $$$'s too.

sidewaysevo
11-22-2004, 05:34 PM
So what u are saying is that monopolizing the industry is ok? I was actually curious and I did a patient search. And I did not find one patient on the product. So does this mean the sparco president is using scare tactics to scare away business from companies, like they did with M1? Has anybody actually seen the product in question? How do people know sparcos is superior? I can tell u right now, that if u compare them that the sparco unit is not. Sparco is going to have to sue a lot of people. Do a search there are all kinds of harness bars. There are multiple ones made for the wrx. They should sue them too. While they are at it why don't they sue all the people that make similar seats too. Sparco doesn't own this site, they have no right to make false accusations. They got a problem handle it in private. just my 2 cents

Knower
11-22-2004, 10:34 PM
Sparco has done a lot to raise the image of the EVO by spending big $$$'s on their car even BIGGER $$$$ campaigning testing products and providing products for a given (very small segment of the import market). They have been very free with their product to both Socalevo/Norcalevo for products at raffle and the EOC. Our community has benifited from Sparco time and time again. I think the post was made public to stop in its tracks the further sale of the product in question. The bar has enough distinctive features that the "knock off" was recognized as the Original right away...Sparco is a huge business we here in the USA just see the bare tip of the iceberg that supports MANY racing programs for our entertainment. I think that the slight $$ difference is worth it and have purchased Sparco products both for their engineering/quality and VALUE to the racing community as a whole not just my little corner of this world. Before you ask has Sparco sponsored product on my car YES in the Business side they see a perceived benefit (for which I'm grateful). The fact that their products JUST WORK and fulfill all the necessary qualifications so I can just race and not worry if the equipment will fail...priceless.

Robi, none of this has any relevance as to whether they should have handled such matters privately. What was the point of another thread when there's already one filled with this kind of stuff?

Chris in SD
11-22-2004, 10:56 PM
I think the point was that Scott's attempt to prevent the clone bar's sale was squelched. The lawsuit thing was a side note, not the meat of the matter. If you read Scott's original post, he just wanted the contact info for that vendor...

Horse beaten, dead, buried, resurrected, beaten again